Firsts
by calantian
Summary: A bunch of short excerpts from Naruto. Too long to be drabbles.
1. Genjutsu

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. In fact, I legally own nothing.

_Notes: Some of these fit into the first half of Naruto (i.e. "gift"), some fit into the time skip (i.e. "prisms"), and some fit quite well into any bit of the series (i.e. "genjutsu"). _

Uzumaki Naruto: genjutsu

Naruto regarded the brown paper package set on the rickety table. He looked around warily, as though someone might be watching him. And given the attitude of the elders towards him, he might very well _be_ watched, even if he couldn't detect anyone's presence.

Probably he was just being paranoid. Kakashi had told him once " Just because you feel as though every suspicious shadow is concealing an enemy, it doesn't follow that they aren't."

None of Kakashi's sayings made much sense.

Kakashi didn't make much sense, period.

Naruto looked back at the package.

It just sat there on the table, looking quite, quite innocent.

Gingerly, he pulled off the paper, revealing the bottle of sake he'd sneaked out of the little shop where he got his instant ramen. It still sat there, looking altogether unbelievably innocent, as he uncorked it.

A strange smell wafted up from the bottle. Naruto grimaced and wrinkled his nose, and took a little sip, straight from the bottle.

Pah! Gross! He spat it out, and sat trying to not to gag. This was what all the fuss was about?

Maybe it got better on the second try. So he took another sip, and this time swallowed it. A rush of heat went through him, and he blinked a little. That was more like it!

So he took another sip, and another, and pretty soon the bottle was half empty. He blinked at it as it swam out of focus. Wait a second..., hadn't he only taken _one_ bottle? He reached out for that strange, unexplained second bottle and stared as his hand went right through it. He giggled inanely and did it again. How weird! How come it did that?

Genjustu! The answer came to him in a flash of illuminating green light. He was willing to bet (except not really, he loved the stuff in his little frog wallet too much to squander it on weird things like betting) that the floating sparkles out the sides of his eyes were caused by genjustu too.

He reached for the first bottle again, curious and a little afraid that his hand would pass through it too, and was relieved when his hand connected with it solidly.

And knocked it over.

The sake went cascading off one edge of the table. Naruto sat and muzzily watched it waterfall. And watched it quit water-falling, and go through all stages of cascadement right down to the drive-you-insane type of slow, steady drip.

Quite suddenly he felt... well, nauseous, which was something he normally didn't feel, thanks to the Kyuubi. He stumbled up and away from the table.

He looked at his hand as he weaved toward the little bathroom. Was it just him, or was the world spinning in dizzy circles?

More genjutsu!

_Note: I don't drink. Hence all reactions experienced by Naruto towards the sake are simply the result of reading. If there are inaccuracies in his reaction to his first drink, that's the reason why. Also, I rather thought, that of all Naruto characters, Naruto himself is the most likely to shoplift a bottle and get drunk. Just for the hell of it._


	2. Gifts

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. In fact, I legally own nothing.

_Notes: Some of these fit into the first half of Naruto (i.e. "gift"), some fit into the time skip (i.e. "prisms"), and some fit quite well into any bit of the series (i.e. "genjutsu"). _

Uchiha Sasuke: gift

Usually, when Mrs. Zamaki came over, Sasuke tried not to be there. She was the latest in the succession of large buxom ladies who came to take care of his small apartment, and tried to take care of him.

Apparently, even though at age twelve, you could be a ninja, risk your life everyday, and be trusted to play with sharp pointy objects, you couldn't be trusted to clean your apartment, eat enough veggies, or wash behind your ears.

The schizophrenia of it irked Sasuke. What irked him even more was that, if he disappeared while one of the large buxom ladies was there, he would inevitably return to find his personal items had been gone through by the large buxom lady, presumably for gossip fodder.

So, he tried to tell whichever large buxom lady it currently was that these were his things, and he didn't like having them moved around. What's more, he could keep his apartment neat and tidy, eat his veggies, and wash behind his ears without any help from anyone.

This was usually met by a "You're so cute, I could just take you home with me!" squeal, and no helpful results at all.

So when Mrs. Zamaki showed up that afternoon to do the utterly unnecessary cleaning, Sasuke stayed put in order to protect his personal effects.

Mrs. Zamaki bustled in, hung up her coat, and turning round gave him a smile of such cheery brightness that Sasuke was tempted to shuriken her.

Mrs. Zamaki said, cheerily and brightly, "I brought you a gift, Sasuke."

Sasuke was tempted to add a fire technique to the shurikens.

"Ta-Da!" Mrs. Zamaki held out a cheery parcel wrapped in bright pink giftwrap.

Forget the fire techniques, this lady was asking for Chidori.

"Don't you want to open it?" Mrs. Zamaki asked, cheerily and brightly.

"No." Sasuke turned away.

"Don't you know what day it is, silly boy?" Mrs. Zamaki said, still cheerily and brightly.

That was it. The woman died. Sasuke swung round glaring.

"Your birthday!" Mrs. Zamaki cheerilyed and brightlyed.

Thus stopping Sasuke from completing the Chidori hand seals, Mrs. Zamaki held out the parcel again.

Abruptly remembering what day it was, Sasuke figured out what the pile of brightly colored packages, all signed with female names, had been doing lying on his front doorstep this morning. (If you looked out there now, all there would be was a slight pile of ashes.)

Sasuke reached out and grabbed the parcel, turned Mrs. Zamaki around, force-marched her out the front door, and locked it behind her.

And then wiping his eyes, he opened the gift.

_Note: I don't subscribe to the school of belief that Sasuke lives in a mansion. Nor do I subscribe to the belief that Sasuke lives entirely alone without any help. I believe that he could live, without any problems, entirely alone and without help. But he's a minor, and therefore people will think he needs help living. Most children would, but most Naruto children don't act like children, and certainly Sasuke doesn't. Also this doesn't really count as a first birthday gift, because I'm sure that his family used to give gifts, but it's been the first in a long while. Gifts from his fans don't count, because I think he destroys them, probably even before the poor fangirl is out of sight._


	3. Prisms

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. In fact, I legally own nothing.

_Notes: Some of these fit into the first half of Naruto (i.e. "gift"), some fit into the time skip (i.e. "prisms"), and some fit quite well into any bit of the series (i.e. "genjutsu"). _

Haruno Sakura: prisms

The crystal wind chimes glittered in the afternoon sunlight. Their edges caught the light, and split into rainbows, hundreds and thousands of rainbows, until she couldn't see anything else. Their quiet, silvery noise was overshadowed by the noise of hundreds and thousands of cicadas.

Sakura sighed and blinked, and the rainbows vanished.

She rolled over on the lounge chair, and looked at the notebook on the table beside her.

1. Sasuke

√2. PRACTICE JUTSU!

√3. Ask Tsunade about Naruto

√4. Call Ino

5. clean room

Oops. She sat up, looked across the small balcony to her room. The clothing piled on the floor, the papers sliding off the desk, the unmade bed, the broken picture frame with the photo she'd torn him out of... She frowned, looked unhappily at #1 on her list, and turned away, avoiding the hurt, staring up again at the wind chimes and the rainbows.

Inside the room, the phone rang. Her mother must have answered on the downstairs line, because it didn't keep ringing.

"Sakura! It's for you!" came the voice.

She got up, and tripping over things, got to the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Sakura. I was just returning your call..."

"Ino!" She and Ino were still in the process of mending their friendship. It's hard to put the pieces of something you broke years ago back together. But somehow, they were making it work again.

"How are you, Sakura?"

"Fine. You?" They talked like that now, formal and hesitant. They still didn't wear their forehead protectors properly. But they didn't call each other names anymore.

They talked for a little while longer, avoiding the topic of Sasuke, then Ino had to go run the flower shop.

"Good-bye, Sakura."

"Good-bye, Ino."

Sakura hung up before Ino did, and bit her lip.

She looked back out at the balcony, where there were hundreds and thousands of rainbows dancing through the prisms.

_Notes: Sakura is not my favorite character. At all. But I have a strange habit of wishing she was. Her character had a lot of potential, but Kishimoto doesn't really give his female characters the same strength he gives the guys. The girls of Naruto are weak. Sakura is the weakest. Tenten isn't given enough development to say she's the weakest, so that title to Sakura goes. Which is sad, because I really want to like her, but... I can't. Her development in the Time Skip seems to be Kishimoto trying to please the fans who think she's weak, but her sudden abrupt strength is rather unrealistic. So I in this chapter I tried to make myself like her. I came out rather ambivalent. This whole chapter is ambivalent, but in it you can get pieces of her personality as I see it. Her to-do list gives you a clue about this: #1, the most important, is find Sasuke. He's the most important thing in her life. #2 gives you a potential explanation as to her strength: she practices a lot. I rather think Lee must have influenced her. Plus, she needs to be strong if she's gonna be sent to retrieve Sasuke. #3 Naruto, another important person, but not as important as Sasuke or training so she can be sent after Sasuke. #4 is Ino. #5 is last because, as you can see, Sakura doesn't like to clean her room. All these things are ranked by their importance to her. Sasuke, training, Naruto, Ino, housework. Also, guess what photo it was that "she tore him out of." There are two firsts in this one. #1 on the list, and first steps in repairing a friendship. Wow. The Notes here are practically as long as the chapter._


End file.
